Tech-no... Dacia survey shows majority of drivers want less tech in cars

At last, manufacturers are beginning to see the light about making cars too tech-heavy.

A constant bugbear with me is the superfluous tech fitted to 21 century cars, much of which is bewildering to anyone over 12 and certainly becomes a dangerous distraction from actually looking through the windscreen.

Dacia has confirmed this in a survey which found that 78 per cent of UK drivers simply want in-car technology that they deem as being useful in making life easier and more comfortable on the road, instead of high-end features that cause confusion and inevitably increase the cost of their new car.

The research has further revealed that 76 per cent of car users think that too much technology in a vehicle can be distracting, while 61 per cent would rather have a more affordable car with just the technology they actually use, instead of paying for pricier extras found on more expensive models that are hardly used.  

For drivers that have a long list of technological features on their own car, around a third think that there are too many fitted in the first place, while 69 per cent think that in-car technology has become too complicated.

Data continued to show that on average, drivers only use around 40 per cent of the technological features fitted to their vehicles, with drivers aged between 25 and 34 regularly using the largest number of features in their car. But even then it’s less than half of the overall technology actually fitted, meaning a large amount of more advanced equipment such as automatic parking and in-car WiFi often goes unused by the majority of drivers in the UK.

The results confirmed that the features drivers want their cars to be fitted with over anything else are parking sensors, sat-nav and DAB radio. It’s no surprise that as a result, the features that are actually most commonly used are DAB (though near me this actually stands for Doesn’t Actually Broadcast) radio, parking sensors and Bluetooth.

Dacia claims, and I would go along with this, that its models have perfectly judged specifications, offering the most advanced features and technology that are essential for the driver’s comfort and pleasure. This probably accounts for why they are such good value.